Observing The Vast Voidness - Dharana 10

Dharana 10 of the Vijuana Bhairava invites you to focus on a vast image with your eyes closed; something like the sky or the ocean or snow or the heart of someone you love. By observing into this vastness, without memory of the past or the future or a history or story about what you are observing, a full experience of consciousness will emerge in this present experience. This is Saktopaya as it is the focusing on an object of perception and is an experience that invites you to merge with what you are perceiving.

Transcript

Hello, This is Jodi and today we're going to do a meditation from the manual for Self-Realization, 112 Meditations of the Vigyana Bhairava, Which is published by the Lakshmanju Academy. And today we're going to focus on Dharana number 10. And to do so, I want to invite you just to close your eyes and make sure you're seated in a seat where you're not straining your back. So if you're sitting on the floor, Your knees are below your hip bones so that you have a little arch in your back. Or you're sitting on a chair where your back is being held so you won't slouch with your feet flat on the ground and your hands resting very comfortably in your lap. Now before we go into our meditation, I want to invite you to pick an object of perception that you're going to visualize in this meditation. And I would like to ask that this object be an object that is as void as possible, Such as a blank wall or the sky, The blue sky, Or an endless ocean, Or even the heart of someone you love. And I want you to choose that object of perception before we begin. So just take a moment and think about what it is you would like to focus your awareness on. Something that you'd like to immerse yourself in or lose yourself in. Okay. Now hold onto that and with your awareness bring your awareness, Your attention to the center of your forehead, And imagine there a beautiful golden light, Warm, Healing, Vibrant light flowing across your forehead and relax your forehead. Relax your eyes and your eyeball, Your eyelids, Your lashes. Don't hold your eyes in any way. Relax your nose and your sinuses. Let your tongue fall slightly back in your mouth and your teeth separate ever so slightly. Your jaw, Let it unlock. With your awareness move that beautiful golden warm light down your throat, Across your shoulders, And down into your arms, All the way into your fingertips. That's right, Let your fingers relax. And with your awareness let your fingers and arms relax and bring your awareness back up into your chest and relax your breath a little, Your beautiful heartbeat. Calm it down with your mind and then move your awareness into your belly, Into your pelvis, Into your sex organs, All the way down into your thighs and knees and legs, Ankles. Just feeling everything relax. With your awareness now bring your mind and this beautiful warm energy back up your legs to the base of your spine. Relax your spine vertebra by vertebra. All the way up your back, Slowly your lower back, Your middle back, Your upper back into your neck. Bring that warm yellow golden light around the crown of your head back to the center of your forehead. Now with your mind's eye I want to invite you to bring your awareness to that void, That object that you want to focus on, Whether it's a sky or an ocean or a blank wall of some kind or even the heartbeat, The heart of someone you love or snow. Find that focus and with your awareness I want you to feel into that vision without bringing memory or history or identity to what you're looking at. Take a look and become conscious awareness in the face of an object that's expansive and endless. As the observer you just are in presence with what you are perceiving. You bring no memory or history. You're one-pointed in awareness. I want you to experience the voidness of observing a vast seeming perception without memory or history. What are you perceiving? Focus yourself in the voidness of present moment awareness. No past, No future. Look observe this expanded perception in your mind's eye, This object that goes on and on. Without labeling an identity, Lose yourself in the vast voidness of consciousness perceiving. One-pointedness. Maintain one-pointedness. Where in this experience do you end and that vast object of perception begin? Become voidness that you are perceiving. Become present awareness as empty and vast as what you see. There is nothing to do but to be awareness, Observing vastness everywhere. Should your mind wander, Bring it back. You are a one-pointed awareness. Way subtler than Dhyana. Way subtler. No past, No future, Pure present awareness of this vast space that you have no history or identity of. You are just existing in perception. Feel yourself melting into a quality of pure present perception of a vast image. No past, No future, Pure present awareness of this vast space that you have no history Let go of your sense of body and self and let yourself melt into a quality of pure awareness, Pure perception, Observing a vast space that goes on and on. Melt and lose yourself into a quality of voidness that expands and doesn't end. No past, No future, Pure void awareness of the serve. No past, No future, No future. Bring your awareness back to that vast image you chose to focus on. Bring yourself back, Focus on it really clearly without history or memory and become present in your awareness as you observe. No past, No future, No future. When you feel ready, Move your breath slightly more. Take a slightly deeper breath. Feel yourself coming out of this meditation of voidness by wiggling your toes and your fingers, Taking a little deeper breath. In this experience, This would be called Saktobaya because you are observing something. You have to concentrate on something. So in this exercise, Instead of concentrating on a mantra or a candle, We have chosen to focus with one pointed awareness on a vast canvas of perception, Sort of a mental image, A memory of sky or snow or ocean. That enables us to quiet our thoughts down, That awareness, And focus on one thing without the past or the future, Enabling pure awareness to become merged or lost in that perception. Thinking of this, One can transcend in consciousness pure, Present, Divine consciousness can rise as the space is left wide open for luminous consciousness to be revealed as thoughts and history and memory are quieted down. And so I invite you, Dear friends, To play with this practice even during your day when you have a moment. Perhaps you're at the bank or somewhere, Focus your awareness on with your eyes open, Something that seems expansive and absurd, Or just take a moment with your eyes closed and become pure awareness of something that you're perceiving. This is Darna number 9, Excuse me, Number 10 of the Vigyanavairava published by the Lakshmi Joo Academy. To learn more, You can visit www. Lja. Yoga. This is Jodi Weiss. I look forward to practicing with you again soon.